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In Memory of John Paul Montgomery
Honors College mourns and celebrates a visionary leader
It is with heartfelt gratitude and deep sorrow that MTSU and the University Honors College remember inaugural Honors College Dean John Paul Montgomery, a beloved professor and mentor. His passing on June 2 at age 81 marks the end of an era, but he leaves behind a legacy that will inspire generations.
Montgomery retired in 2004 after 35 years of devoted service to MTSU as a full professor in the English Department, director of the Honors Program, and ultimately as the founding dean of the Honors College. A tireless advocate for academic excellence and personal growth, he spent more than a decade transforming what was once a small program into a thriving Honors College that has since become a model for Tennessee and beyond.
During his 13 years at the helm, Montgomery oversaw a staggering 660% increase in Honors student enrollment—a figure that dwarfed the overall University growth during that time. But his impact cannot be measured by numbers alone. He didn’t just grow a program—he nurtured a community. His leadership turned a dream into reality when, in 1998, MTSU became the first public university in Tennessee to elevate its program to a full-fledged Honors College— a bold, strategic move he orchestrated with vision, persistence, and heart.
When philanthropists Paul Martin Jr. and Lee Martin issued a $2 million challenge gift to help construct a dedicated Honors College building, the dean rose to meet it. Montgomery immersed himself in fundraising, architectural planning, and every aesthetic detail. From the bell tower to the fireplaces, from the retro lighting to the outdoor amphitheater, the Paul W. Martin Sr. Honors Building stands as a physical manifestation of his ideals: beauty, community, intellectual energy, and a refusal to settle for the ordinary.
“I don’t want this to look like all the other buildings at MTSU,” he famously said. And it doesn’t. It looks like home for thinkers, dreamers, and doers.
Yet perhaps his most lasting legacy lies in the culture he cultivated. Montgomery fought to dispel the myth that Honors was only for the aloof or the elite. He believed Honors should be an open door, not a closed gate.
Under his leadership, the program became a vibrant, inclusive space for students who were willing to work hard and think deeply. He raised admissions standards while simultaneously broadening opportunities—adding interdisciplinary seminars, H-Options (a way to earn Honors credits for non-Honors courses), study abroad pathways, and service-learning initiatives.
In doing so, he laid the groundwork for an Honors College defined not by exclusivity, but by curiosity, creativity, and community.
His vision of learning was deeply personal. Montgomery believed that the best education happened not in lecture halls or behind screens, but face-to-face, mentor to student, scholar to scholar. He himself was the embodiment of that belief, having won multiple University teaching awards for his passionate, one-on-one approach to guiding students. To him, knowledge wasn’t just information—it was a relationship. And he passed that philosophy on to every student and faculty member who crossed the threshold of the Honors College.
From establishing the Honors Student Association and the first Honors Living and Learning Center in Wood Hall, to building a curriculum that emphasized research, independent study, and interdisciplinary engagement, Montgomery did more than shape a college—he shaped lives. His fondest hope, he often said, was that the Honors model would one day influence the entire University. And today, with undergraduate research flourishing across disciplines, that dream is well on its way to reality.
As the Martin Honors Building opened its doors in 2004, it was not just the beginning of a new chapter for MTSU—it was a culmination of everything Montgomery stood for. And now, in the wake of his passing, those doors remain open to students whose lives continue to be changed by the foundation he built.
“We mourn his loss, but we also celebrate a life so rich in purpose, so generous in spirit, and so deeply interwoven with the heart of MTSU,” current Honors Dean John R. Vile said. “Dean John Paul Montgomery may have left this world, but his legacy echoes in every Honors thesis, every seminar discussion, every quiet study session beneath the soft light of the Honors College Commons.
“He showed us what it meant to dream boldly, to build wisely, and to teach with love. Rest well, Dean Montgomery. You made this place better for all of us.”
